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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28441791">A Deviation</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/thejilyship/pseuds/thejilyship'>thejilyship</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Banter, F/M, Flirting, Hogwarts, Jealous James Potter, shared head dorm</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 21:22:22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,644</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28441791</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/thejilyship/pseuds/thejilyship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Lily likes to stick to her schedule, James knows this. One night, she comes back to the dorm late and disheveled and he jumps to some conclusions.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>James Potter/Lily Evans Potter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>112</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>James and Lily Fanfics</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A Deviation</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I wrote this one FIVE YEARS ago. But it stands. I don't write a lot of jealous!james, but I do like him ;)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Lily Evans liked her schedule.</p><p>Not that she wasn’t one to stray from it time and again, but she liked it.</p><p>She woke up every morning at eight o’clock, she showered, dressed, and then headed down for breakfast. She met with Marlene and Mary in the Great Hall, and after eating, the three of them went to class. She would pay attention in class, participate when necessary, go to lunch, more classes and then off to the library before dinner to get started on her homework.</p><p>After dinner, she would allow herself a few hours to relax with her friends before she tackled her N.E.W.T. level homework, which seemed to grow daily no matter how many hours she spent in the library. After she spent time in the Gryffindor common room, she would head back to the library and set up shop there until nine o’clock, which was when the library closed. She would walk back to the heads dorms, and then unwind for the day with a good book, or if James was up to it, a game of chess or a card game.</p><p>Then she would call it a night, no later than eleven, go up to her room, change into her pjs, and that was her day.</p><p>Were there days when she felt like she lived in the library and never emerged? Yes. Did she sometimes have to skip dinner to finish a particularly nasty essay? Sure. Were there days when she would do very little homework and opt to spend the evening with her friends instead? Sure. But those were all her decisions. She made the choice to stay in the library, or avoid the library, which seemed to be the only variations her schedule had to offer her lately.</p><p>Today however was not going according to plan.</p><p>At least not her plan, and that had her in a bad mood.</p><p>She had been walking back to the head’s dormitory after finishing a Herbology essay, which had put her in a good mood, when she was accosted by a group of six, Hufflepuff, fifth years who must have been experimenting with alcohol for the first time, because they were beyond plastered and wandering around the corridors at nine o’clock on a Thursday.</p><p>If that had been all, Lily would not have been too late getting back to the head’s dorm. She would have simply docked points, and sent them off to bed.</p><p>However, she couldn’t do that, because the prats had gone out to Professor Kettleburn's animal pen first, and were each carrying a clabbert, and when they spotted Lily, four of the six students dropped the poor creatures. The students all tried to run from Lily, and the clabberts tried to hop away, their small little red foreheads glowing.</p><p>So, instead of curling up with a book at half past nine, or playing a game of crazy eights with James, Lily was forced to chase down not only the four clabberts that had been dropped, but then she had to go and find the other two so that she could return them to where they should be. She was in such a fowl mood after the nearly <em>two hour </em>ordeal, that she ended up giving all six of the students a month of weekend detention with Filch.</p><p>And now it was just past eleven when she walked through the portrait that hide the entrance to the head’s dorm. Her hair was a mess, her face was flushed, she was still slightly out of breath from running around and the very last thing she wanted to do just then was talk to anyone. She just wanted to go up to her room and pass out on her bed.</p><p>Unfortunately for her, James was sitting on the couch just across from the entrance, and he looked anxious. Upon seeing Lily however, his face hardened. Lily almost found herself taking a step back.</p><p>“Evening.” He crossed his arms over his chest.</p><p>“Eve-”</p><p>“Lights-out is at nine-thirty.” James said. He pulled his hand up to his face and looked at his watch. “I could be mistaken, but it seems to be a bit later than nine-thirty. What time do you have?” He looked up at her, brow raised.</p><p>Lily took a deep breath and was ready to launch into her horrible story when he pushed himself up off the couch and walked across the room until he was standing in front of her.</p><p>“I know that you’re going to say that I have very little room to talk because my past behavior has been far from stellar, especially when it came to following school rules, but we’re head students now. We can’t just come back to our rooms whenever it pleases us, we have an example to set for the rest of the student body, and you coming in nearly <em>two hours</em> after lights-out is not setting a very good example.” He took a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair.</p><p>Lily, who had always assumed that James had held some resentment towards her for always reprimanding him, understood that he might have been waiting to get the chance to give her a taste of her own medicine, and instead of getting upset with him, she just gave him a smile. Before she could open her mouth to tell him why she was late, he beat her to it. For a second time.</p><p>“I mean, for Merlin’s sake, Lily,” His hand was back in his hair. “What the bloody hell was so important that you came back to the dorm, <em>two hours</em> late?” He pulled his hand from his hair to motion to her. “And looking like you do?” Lily blanched at that. What did he mean like that. “I hope he was a good snog because I think I might have to give you detention for-”</p><p>“A good snog?” Lily interrupted, more confused than anything else. “What the bloody hell are you talking about?”</p><p>“Oh don’t give me that.” James crossed his arms again and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. “You come back here all flushed and out of breath and you’re going to tell me that you weren’t snogging someone?”</p><p>Lily laughed. “And who the hell would I have been snogging?”</p><p>James pressed his lips together and shrugged. “I don’t care.”</p><p>“No?” Lily, who was still carrying her school bag and wearing her robes, walked past him and to the couches. She set her bag down and then unfastened her robes, laying them on the back of the couch. “Because it sort of sounds like you care.”</p><p>“I don’t.” He said. “The only reason I’m saying anything at all is because I’ve been trying very hard to abide by the school rules and take my position as Head Boy seriously.”</p><p>“You never even came back to the dorm last Sunday.” Lily countered.</p><p>“That- Well-”</p><p>“I wasn’t snogging anyone, James.” Lily said, falling back onto the couch. She reached down and unlatched her shoes before toeing them off and bringing her feet up, resting them on the coffee table. “Now if you shut up and sit down I can tell you what really happened.”</p><p>James looked skeptical, and still a bit put out, but he walked over to where Lily was and sat down directly next to her. He was a bit closer than he normally was when they sat near one another, but Lily didn’t think to much of it as she delved into the story about the idiot Hufflepuffs. She showed him the scratch marks on her arms from the clabberts, and mimicked the faces of the Hufflepuffs when she had eventually tracked them down the second time, and soon James’ face had softened and he was laughing along with Lily at the absurd situation she had been in.</p><p>“And now, I’m completely beat.” She finished, resting her head on back of the sofa and letting her eyes drift shut. “I’m not even going to go to class tomorrow morning. I’ve already decided. What do we have first period? History of Magic? Binns won't notice if I'm gone.”</p><p>She had expected James to laugh, but he was silent so she opened her eyes and peeked over at him. He was looking at her, but he wasn't smiling anymore.</p><p>“Something wrong?”</p><p>“I’m sorry.” He said, shaking his head.</p><p>“S’fine. You tired?”</p><p>“No, I mean, I’m sorry for earlier. I’m sorry that I laid into you about being late.”</p><p>“You didn’t know-”</p><p>“I still shouldn’t have done it. If you had been snogging someone, that’s none of my business and I shouldn’t be shouting at you because of it, regardless of… things.”</p><p>“So you do care?” Lily asked, smirking slightly.</p><p>James sighed and pushed his glassed up his nose. “I doesn’t matter, I shouldn’t have gotten upset with you.”</p><p>Lily chewed on her lip and nodded. “Probably not, but if we’re being honest…” She took a deep breath. “I would have been upset if the roles were reversed.”</p><p>It took James a minute to understand exactly what she was saying, but when it did finally sink in something sparked behind his glasses and he turned his entire body towards her.</p><p>“What are you saying?” He asked quietly, even though he knew exactly what she was saying.</p><p>“I’m saying that the only boy that I’d fancy snogging till after lights-out is you.” Then she reached over and grabbed hold of his school tie, using it to pull him towards her. His hands quickly found their way to her hair, and the small of her back and he pulled her closer until she was almost on his lap. </p><p>Yes, she would much rather have been snogging James for the last two hours.</p><p>This was a deviance from her schedule that she was perfectly fine with.</p>
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